Latest On Andrew Bailey

Athletics closer Andrew Bailey likely will be traded to the Red Sox or Rangers, tweets ESPN's Buster Olney, who notes that both suitors have interest and the chips needed. Earlier this month the Rangers won the right to negotiate with Yu Darvish and the Red Sox acquired Mark Melancon, but reportsindicated both clubs remained interested in Bailey. The Rangers might have an excess of starters if they sign Darvish and keep Alexi Ogando out of the 'pen.

Despite their lack of success at the MLB level, the Orioles (Sad as it is) actually don’t have nearly as much to offer as the Red Sox. The Sox placed ahead of them with BA last year after trading for Adrian Gonzalez and had a significantly better draft than the Orioles.

Exactly. Texas has Lewis, Holland, Harrison and Feliz in the rotation. Which means that once Darvish comes in, Ogando is likely pushed back into a key bullpen role. Which means we’d have a bullpen of Feldman, Tateyama, Lowe, Uehara, Ogando, Adams and Nathan with 3 possible closers. That leaves one open spot for a lefty. Bailey doesn’t fit.

Yeah there’s been no word at all that Harrison would be traded. There has been a post that speculated such a move which is ridiculous. What team moves a solid #3 starter so that a reliever with 2 pitches and a closer transitioning into a starter can fill out a rotation that will also feature Darvish (and no one ever knows how those moves work out)? Even JD wouldn’t take that big of a risk. And why would Texas overpay for an injury risk closer and drop Uehara because of a 2 month sample size? Makes no sense at all.

Lowe is not that great. Tateyama and Uehara were awful and the word is that Uehara wants to go back to Baltimore. Ogando will stay in the rotation. He was too good there last year to take him out of the rotation before Harrison. The Rangers can depend on Nathan, Adams and Feldman. They can take a flyer on Lowe, but can’t take chances with other parts of the bullpen. Harrison could be a fit if he isn’t traded. If the Rangers want to go back to the WS again then they need at least two more dependable bullpen pieces not named Tateyama or Uehara. That said, I still wouldn’t give anywhere near what Oakland is asking for Bailey.

Rays need to win these “battles”. This isn’t about who pays the most
money, this is about who offers the most and we never go for it.
Instead, we’re gonna let Bailey go to the Red Sox and have another
awesome closer in the division….

The Rays need their prospects, by and large, to compete at all. They can’t be trading guys all over the place in a win-now mentality considering how they’re built. They’ve got a big window, can’t mortgage the future when you can’t just go buying up free agents.

The Rays last year proved what any smart baseball fan knew all along. Closers are the most overrated commodity in baseball. Why pay someone 12mm a year or give up the farm, when you can pay a guy like Farnsworth 3mm to the same thing.

I’d only want him on my team if the prospect price is low (which it sounds like it isn’t). Andrew Bailey is good when he pitches, but he’s only a reliever, so he doesn’t pitch that often. And he’s had a lot of trouble staying healthy at that (90 IP the last two years).

As an A’s fan, I can definitely tell you that “yes”, it is very sad. We don’t know what it’s like to have a great player on our team and watch him play for his entire career in our uniform. We’re lucky to get 2-3 years out of them.

I’m sorry, but was it not less than 10 years ago that you all had
Hudson, Zito, Mulder, Giambi, Tejada, Ramon Hernandez and Eric Chavez,
among others, for a solid run and made the playoffs 5 out of 7 years?

Cry me a river (from a Padres fan). No players stay with their teams forever anymore.

It’s gonna be this way until we have a better stadium, which will bring not just more fans but better players, which will allow us to keep players around longer than their first major league contract term. At this point, I don’t even care where this new stadium gets built. I just hope it’s in the Bay Area at least. And to answer your point, yes, it’s very sad for us.

I guess the Rangers are mad because Onley ranked our bullpen #10. I understand that the Rangers were interested in Bailey, but after winning the rights to Darvish (potentially putting Ogando back in relief) and knowing the A’s will want a ton from us, this makes no sense for us from a trade stand point. We’d almost assuredly have to concede the trade in the A’s favor to pry a 26 yr old cheap, controllable closer from our division rivals.

Rangers will probably, if they are smart put Ogando back in the back end of the pen along with Nathan now that they will have Darvish and if the Redsox pull off a trade for Garza, I don’t think they will want to completley strip the farm system naked and trade for Bailey also.

I know that I just agreed the Rays need a hitter but that shouldn’t stop us. We can sign Pena, we pretty much have to trade one of our pitchers for a hitter, we really, really should anyway so the prospects haven’t been touched at all and we should have a great shot at Andrew Bailey. I’m sorry but Farnsworth could easily have flashbacks to his Yankee days and I would prefer Bailey shutting the door.

I’ve wondered about that too. Are you thinking that maybe they would package Bailey with a couple other guys (perhaps Moreland and/or Murphy and/or Harrison) for an upgrade somewhere else? What are your thoughts?

I actually think they would move Harrison/Holland with some combination Scheppers, Martin, or Uehara in a blockbuster for a big bat in CF/1B. Logan Morrison comes to mind as a good candidate. That way Hamilton, Cruz, and Kinsler could be resigned, with Perez and Profar coming up in the near(ish) future.

I wold actually like to see Moreland get a full year at 100% health. I still maintain that he could hit .300 with 20+ HR’s and a very good OBP.

Don’t think you would have to “gut the farm” for Bailey–you would just have to offer a better package than the Sox. I would actually argue that the Rangers have a bit of a surplus given the the talent at the MLB level, so a trade makes sense. Might be best to hold on to those chips for an upgrade at the trade deadline, especially if the right team is out of contention and in sell mode.

I think it’s just speculation that Texas is still in it since they were in earlier in the month. But that was before winning the rights to Darvish. Signing Darvish and moving Ogando to the 7th-8th inning seems much safer and smarter team and prospect wise rather than gut the farm for an injury risk closer on a division rival.

The Rays are going nowhere in their stadium. They and the A’s need new parks now or just contract them. San Jose needs to happen soon and from all these trades it would appear to be what the A’s are thinking will happen.